1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an inertia sensor for a seat mounted seat belt retractor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Seat belt retractors are typically mounted on a structural part of the vehicle adjacent to the vehicle seat or in the roof. It has been suggested, especially with passive seat belt systems, to amount the retractors directly to the vehicle seats in order to eliminate most of the relative motion of the retractor to occupant at the time of seat adjustment. Such a system can work quite well with a manually adjusted seat provided that a suitable load transferring mechanism is utilized. However, mounting of a vehicle sensitive retractor on power adjusted seat structures which include the ability for tilting forwards and backwards from the horizontal presents problems of adequately compensating for tilting of the inertia sensor associated with the vehicle sensitive retractor. Typical motorized seats are capable of tilting up to 8 degrees or more in the forwards and reverse directions.
It would be desirable to provide a tilt compensating inertia sensor for a seat belt retractor intended for mounting on a tiltable vehicle seat.